Ashley Poole of Dream is makin a solo comeback. See what she says about the past and the future.

In the early 2000s, Ashley Poole was among the four members of the teen pop girl Dream, whose chart-topping single “He Loves U Not” and platinum debut album “It Was All a Dream” were ubiquitous.

Signed to P. Diddy’s Bad Boys Records label, the group was a mainstay on MTV’s countdown show “TRL,” where the video for its second single, “This Is Me,” also hit No. 1. It tagged along on tours by ’N Sync and co-headlined Allentown’s Mayfair festival with another boy band, BBMak.

This all happened before Poole turned 18.

As teen acts often do, Dream faded nearly as fast as it rose and eventually broke up. But nearly half her life later, Poole is making another run at the dream, so to speak.

The singer is back as a dance-pop artist, having released a single, “If It Feels Right,” that’s getting industry attention. She’s also out on a short tour — just seven dates, all in the Northeast — to reconnect her with her fans and make new ones.

The stour stops Wednesday at Allentown’s Crocodile Rock Cafe, with an after-party and performance at Molten Lounge at Sands Casino Resort-Bethlehem.

In a recent telephone call from New York, where she was in the recording studio, Poole, now 29, talked about the history of Dream, her solo career since, and the future.

Here’s an edited transcript of the call:

LEHIGH VALLEY MUSIC: I hear you’re recording.

ASHLEY POOLE: ”I actually have a home studio that I can take everywhere I go, so I write every day. And then we have, like, tons of studio sessions with different writers. It’s my second home.”

Tell me the story behind your new single.

“I wrote ‘If It Feels Right’ a couple years ago as a joke. On of my favorite producers that I work with, he likes that I’m a small-town girl and I have a lot of country vibes in me. And I basically kind of wrote it about my hometown and small-town girl in the big city, and I did this, like, twangy version of it, but it was really a joke.

“And he was like, ‘That is really good.’ And I was like, ’really?’ So I really worked on it and did a real song and we love it. It was super pop, and we thought it was the perfect introduction for me to come back out, more people to know that I’m staying in a pop vein – especially coming out of Dream.

“And we thought it was just a really good introduction. But the new music that we have is just incredible, I’m just so excited about it, and people are going to get to know me a lot better.”

Are you working toward putting together a disc?

“I have a ridiculous amount of songs. Literally, could probably put together nine albums . And my music is incredible. I’m not just saying that to toot my own horn; I try to keep an open mind and listen to other people and I show it to other people who I trust their opinion and DJs and stuff like that. And people go crazy each time they hear my music.

“As of right now, I would like to just keep putting out a few singles. But we are preparing to do an EP. Right now we’re just going to give everybody a few teasers, so they can kind of see what I’m more about, and during that time I’m going to connect with my fans and really vibe off of them, because they’re the most important keys to my career. And I’m going to start creating my brand.”

And that’s the idea of the tour, to just get you back out there in front of people?

“Yeah. I need to connect with my fans. I need to go see their faces, talk to them, hear their feedback. And I need to be on stage and feel myself. And I am the type of artist that is so insanely in love with my career that this is, like, so exciting for me to be back on stage.

“That’s really what this is about – just reconnecting with everybody. Getting new fans to see me and have fun [laughs]. To be honest, it’s not all business. I’m so excited about the costumes and choreography and my earpieces – I’m excited about everything [laughs].”

Fill in the blanks for me: What have you been doing for the past few years as far as a musical career?

“You know, the music industry is a tough business, as everybody says. And I’ve never stopped hustling and working. I’ve been writing music. I’ve been trying to figure out who I am as a solo artist. But also during those times, my girl group, we got back together, we split again.

“So through a process of me trying to figure out who I am as an artist. And it’s been a big process. I’ve learned a lot and I’m really, really ready right now and everybody’s recognizing that I’m ready. There are a lot of people watching. We have a lot of people who are interested in working with me and a lot of people who see my potential and my talent and so right now, we’re ready for that.

“But during all that time, I really feel like it was just to get me to this point: All that writing I did is coming into play now. My craft has basically been built and perfected. I’m always going to continue to perfect it and build it, but during that time, that’s how I look back and I see it.”

Let’s talk about Dream. You guys hit so big so fast, toured with NSync, had a number one record, what was it like during that time? You were, like, what, 16, 17 years old?

“Yes. Incredible. I still look back and can’t believe that I did that. I think it feels like a past life sometimes because it was such a crazy world that I don’t feel like a lot of people will ever really be able to understand.

“But I felt home during those times. I felt home on stage with 50,000 or 100,000 people staring at me. I felt home at the award shows and all that stuff. As much as it was exciting and wonderful and my dreams were coming true and all that, the other part of that is that when I look back on those times, I realize that that that’s where I’m supposed to be.

“It was exciting, incredible. And it will continue to be incredible.”

And help me go along the timeline here. First album comes out, huge hit. Second album doesn’t come out. The stuff I read was that it was significantly different and there was some hesitation about it coming out?

“What happened was we did an amazing second album. We wrote half of the entire album and it was incredible – we basically were going to be the female NSync. And it was really insane. Puffy put out a really, really urban record, which I think shocked our fans and didn’t go as well as we thought it would, and we were all super young – we were all 17, 18, and the lead singer at the time felt she wanted to go pursue other things; going to school and what not.

“And too much time had passed during that slow moment where out single didn’t do really well, and I think she had enough time to think that she wanted to do something else. So she went ahead and did that.

“Those were some of the hardest times in my life. I wanted Dream to go on forever, and when that ended. I think someone leaked the album – there were a bunch of songs unmixed and everything, which is fine. I’m glad the fans at least can hear all that work we put into it.

“But when that ended, I just kept it moving. I called everybody I knew, tried to take meetings with labels, tried to get my solo career started. And I started to work with writers and go into studios and trying to get that out. I tried all kinds of sounds during that time. I did pop, I did rock, I did R&B, I did Christian, I did hip-hop. [Laughs] I did everything – all the genres.

“And now I’m here, where you can hear my music. I wrote all of it.”

And there was a point where there was going to be a reunion? In 2008?

“We did get back together. We didn’t own the name, so we changed our name to Lady Phoenix – not our finest moment. [Laughs]

“And we started to record some stuff and … we wanted to try a more jazzy sound, which is definitely not my favorite. I just went along with it ‘cause I just missed my girls and we were tryin something new. During that time, just nothing was really happening. And so, actually, I decided to bow out after three years of trying and not going anywhere.

“But during that time we did do a pilot for a reality show, which nobody picked up. But it was incredible. Still to this day, when people see it, they’re like, ‘Why didn’t someone pick this up?’ Cause it would have been incredible. But I think at the time, TV was still looking for more of the hair-pulling and craziness [Laughs]. And we had more real things to offer and more humor.

“So we did get back together an it didn’t work out and we’re all still really close and friends. And then I really just started to pursue my solo career after that.”

Is a reunion ever off the table?

“Never, no. Those are my girls – for life. I mean, we don’t have that kind of drama between us. We have all love, and we all want to see each other succeed, and absolutely, I think we’re amazing together, still. I mean, you put us in a room together, we start singing. It’s incredible, so I’ll never take that off the table.”

What’s your show going to be like? Playing all new songs? Some Dream songs?

“We are playing a lot of song, actually. We are giving them a real taste [Laughs]. But yes, we will definitely be touching base with that. I’ll just say that.”

You guys played in Allentown in 2001 – a festival called Mayfair.

“Yeah, yeah. That was like a fair kind of thing going on?

Yeah, exactly.

“Yeah, yeah. Those were the good old days. Those were fun. We did like nine tours in one year. Those were some good times. I don’t know if that was the same show – BB Mack performed and there were a few others.”

That’s exactly right.

“Yeah, those we so much fun times. We used to kill it on stage, just because it was, like, freedom. We were just being like real artists – it wasn’t as pressure, I think, at that time and those were the days. Those were the good days.”

Anything else?

“I just want to say that I’m super, super excited and I cannot wait to perform for everybody. The show’s great, the show’s incredible – daring and exciting and touching base with the past and present and the future. And my music is incredible, so I’m really excited. I can’t wait for everyone to hear them. It’s going to be fun.”

“We have a single called ‘More’ coming out on Tuesday, available on iTunes an other services. And then there’s going to be another single called ‘Last Time’ will come out in mid-December. ‘More’ is one of my favorite records I’ve ever done.”